Continued political infighting is holding up plans to make cuts to “special salaries” to professions in Greece that want to be protected against more punishing pay cuts put on civil servants.
A meeting was held among Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras, Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Dendias, Defense Minister Panos Panagiotopoulos and the heads of the three branches of the armed forces, as well as officers from the police and fire departments, who don’t want their pay cut.
The newspaper Protothema reported that the government plans to replace special payroll cuts of $257.25 million with equivalent horizontal cuts in expenses and to implement the measure in 2013 to save $752.87 million annually.
Officials are also discussing the weighted average reduction of 12-14% in payroll costs for doctors, teachers, diplomats, civil servants, police, and the armed forces, but propose that it should be scaled to protect sectors that have already been severely affected, and are expressing strong opposition.
The largest cut in this proposal, about 20%, would hit judges and diplomats, the groups with the highest incomes. Teachers would be cut another 10 percent, and priests would for the first time have a similar reduction as they are paid by the government. The government is trying to finalize plans to make an additional $14.16 billion in cuts to be presented to international lenders to insure lifeline loans keep coming.
(Source: Protothema, Capital.gr)
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